Winter Midnight
by Alex Mcpherson
Summary: 'Marvel One-shot' style, Part of the Midnight Series. Skye wanted to tell Miles he was to be a father, but she couldn't, not then, not what happened. The Soldier tried three times, in just over a year. The first, She was too shocked to do anything. The third, she just gave up.. But there was a second, one that had a lasting impact... or impacts, so to speak, on him.


Marvel Shorts  
The Winter Promise

**January 16****th**** 2007**

Silence, it was... deafening. I entered slowly, because as soon as I'd gotten to the bottom of the path that lead to the front door, I knew something was wrong, so I'd kept on walking, until I'd gotten to the driveway for next door, and snuck into their back yard, then gone to the back door, watchful, primal instincts I guess.

Slowly, I edged through and then shut the door.

Nothing. No sound.

The TV was off, no music was playing, and a quick check through my phone, I knew the computer wasn't even switched on.

There was usually someone here, at all times. Even when everyone who lived here, or where friends with those who did, were all out, that was because they avoided the maid service.

It felt... unnatural, the silence.

So I crept through the house, peeking through before entering any room, and being sure to keep watch of my own back.

Which is why it was something of a shock to see a familiar figure, working away on a laptop, while not far, Miles was tied up, and couldn't make a sound, given a gun held by someone I couldn't see.

I don't know why, but with this so-called Winter Soldier there, but distracted, I went for the one I knew I might be able to take down quickly enough... because he was in the way of the door, so I kicked the door, as hard as I could. IT travelled the few degrees at high speed, my foot keeping pressure on it, and I felt it as the door hit the one with the gun, then the grunt as what sounded like a head hit a shelf... I knew the layout of the room, so there couldn't be anyone else hiding from my view, and knew the guy must have been knocked out.

Which left the Winter Soldier, who spun around in surprise, silver arm leading in a sweep I ducked... and I managed to swipe the gun.

I remembered Natasha's lessons, as I came back up, and at this range, I knew I could shoot from the hip and still hit...

I heard the impacts, the same sounds as when the bullets fired in those lessons had struck their target, the same material...

Of course, he was wearing armor.

Still, can't have been a walk in the park, getting shot by a little slip of a girl like me, at pretty much point-blank range, in the Kevlar-protected chest and – with the first sound not being the same – probably a round in the hip.

I was surprised to get eighteen shots. It locked after that, out of bullets, and I dropped it as I went to kick...

I stared at the blood that had splashed the room, then out the broken window where the Soldier had dove through. I'd held him off a minute, before he realised he couldn't do anything. I saw it in his eyes as he ducked a swipe, then turned and jumped from a crouch right out of the window.

I checked the other one, who wasn't masked, and found various things, but no ID. I swiped the ammo and quickly reloaded the pistol, and thought with wonder at the small rounds, though it explained the number of rounds. I realised I should have checked for a hidden guns and stuff when he went for his leg and was pulling a small pistol out... in response I simply pulled the trigger.

I stared at the gun, the smoke I'm sure was just a trick of the light, and the now-dead body with a grouping of bullets in the head.., and the trickle of blood from the holes.

Hearing motion, I looked up gun rising, only to stop because it was Miles, somehow he'd stood up and was backing away from me.

I looked at the man on the ground... and I knew. Whatever I came for... no. Just... No.

**En Route to HYDRA Facility**

The half-masked man winced as he reached in, one-handed, and pulled out a bullet, which soon joined a dozen of it's siblings in a little tin. Even so, he was driving, one-handed, back to base, minus the one goon his bosses had sent with him.

That girl...

As he dug out the last few, he couldn't help chuckle. The girl had surprised them both. He could tell in the fight, she'd been scared to hell and was barely bringing any fighting skills to the engagement, but he'd lost... because she'd slammed twenty of these damn things into his stomache, and he had tried to fight back through the pain, but this was not to be denied.

He was more impressed, than anything. And a part of him, the part that told him not to be angry, to hold it against her, also told him it was only fair because he'd tortured the girls' boyfriend, whom she hadn't been back to for so long, which is why they were there...

He shook his head. It was coincidence, really. She'd disappeared off their radar, and it was only after she'd disappeared from Mr Lydon's life that they found out what kind of connection the pair had, and so they'd gone to him to, convince, him, to give her up. He had broken hours ago. The girl truly had disappeared.

It was an irony that had him gritting his teeth from the painful chuckle.

He wasn't finding it so funny later when the 'doctors' didn't believe his statement, and had him wired up to that machine... His last thought before he fell unconscious, was of the girl.

**Six Months Later**

From the rear-view mirror, he looked upon the girl, sat in handcuffs, between two of his agents.

This girl was different from the one he'd met at the start of the year, hell she was different from the first time.

And he knew why. A part of him was screaming to release her... but the rest of him, the part that had long ago given up to _their_ control, drowned it out.

The first time, she'd fought until he'd knocked her out. The look in her eyes then, she hadn't even realised she had been fighting. She hadn't been effective, no training at all. Nine months later... she'd been the one to win, and given the talk they'd heard from police departments... probably even executed the one that had accompanied him.

He subconsciously rubbed at his stomache a little, remembering those shots, as he cast a look once more to the reason why she hadn't even resisted this time... "Something wrong?" The guy in the front passenger seat asked, and he covered quickly, "Just' an old scar itching."

He grinned to himself, that, part, allowing himself the one moment to appreciate the explosion of the lab where they'd taken her, where he'd been kept...

It wouldn't be for long, but he would... appreciate the freedom, for a time. Drawing up a hood, he sat back on the stolen bike, and followed the S.H.I.E.L.D. vehicles that had left.

He watched at a distance, And recognised the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., along with two of it's best agents and a third he recognised but didn't recall the name of.

For days, he watched, and he couldn't help the frown when his surveillance revealed this girl had gone into a Coma.

And the day before he was 'recovered', the day this girl was back and holding her two children in her arms, a part of himself swore to never succeed in capturing this girl again. The part that, only recently allowed him to remember his name. And while he felt he couldn't take that name anymore... the part of him that swore to protect her and the children, in his own way, remembered, knew that deep down, beneath the programming, he was still Bucky Barnes.


End file.
